Outdoor wall murals would be allowed in areas beyond the immediate downtown Elgin district under a proposed zoning amendment recommended Monday by the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission.
Murals are currently allowed in areas zoned CC1, known as the downtown Center City 1 district, and PCC, which stands for Planned Center City. If approved by the Elgin City Council, the amendment would also permit them on private buildings and other sites in the downtown district zoned CC2, or Center City 2.
CC2 includes the area east of the Grand Victoria Casino, the northeast side of downtown Elgin, and an area west of the Fox River between Wing Street and Highland Avenue.
The expansion is part of the Elgin’s effort to bolster its “City of the Arts” identity.
More Top Picks Buying Guides
“Murals have been proven to enhance the community character in more urban areas,” city senior planner Damir Latinovic said at Monday’s meeting.
Seven murals have been installed on public and private property in CC1 as a result of the 2019 ordinance under which they were authorized, Latinovic said.
Another is to go up this month, Cultural Arts Manager Amanda Harris, and Vineyard Church of Elgin on Division Street is interested in commissioning one for its property, according to Latinovic.
Commissioners voted 3-1 to recommend council approval of the zoning amendment.
Commissioner Karin Jones voted yes despite voicing some concerns over how the city’s permit process is being communicated to property owners and artists. Some artwork that could be defined as murals has already been installed the CC2 district despite there currently being no regulations allowing it, she said.
“(Building owners are likely thinking) ‘We’re seeing all these murals go up on city property so it must be OK to put them up on private property,'” Jones said. “I don’t think that’s being differentiated or educated. Maybe that would be an outreach (city staff should undertake).”
The lone negative vote came from Commission Loretta Revesz.
“I don’t want to regulate artists,” Revesz said. “But it was underscored tonight that (murals are already) up in (the CC2 zoning district) and nobody knows about them. … This was the whole reason I voted against it (in 2019).”
Elgin requires permits to be obtained before murals can be installed, with regulations on such things as size of the work allowed, amount of text it can include, types of buildings on which they are allowed and where murals can be located within a property lot.